Gardner is lauded as "awfully impressive," the OL and WR "deep and talented," and "Fitz looked pretty good"; Howard Griffith entertainingly (and accidentally) refers to "Pimpkins" when talking about the defensive line. DiNardo is just nuts about Mattison.

If you'd like to compare tones, here's the MSU talk. They "lean" Maxwell at QB, but DiNardo says he couldn't pick a guy based on 147 snaps in that practice.

"Each school makes its own individual decision regarding whether or not to license their trademarks for use in the EA Sports game(s)," the SEC said in a statement. "The Southeastern Conference has chosen not to do so moving forward.

"Neither the SEC, its member universities, nor the NCAA have ever licensed the right to use the name or likeness of any student to EA Sports."

“Schogiving” is a giant Thanksgiving party in either late July or early August, depending when the Schofield boys report to football camp. The party ballooned to 50 people this year with at least 15 pounds of pork tenderloin, a 35-pound turkey and a 20-pound ham. The food is prepared by Kathy in the Schofield kitchen.

“She kind of made up a holiday,” Schofield said. “She wanted to do it. Our whole family is there. She wanted to make a giant dinner and it became our entire family and friends.”

MEAT FOR THE MEAT GOD.

CATCH FOR THE CATCH GOD. Drew Dileo was good and underused last year and it would be beneficial for the team if he was good and properly used this year. I'm generally not a fan of KC Joyner's very basic statistical whatnot articles($), but YPA is YPA:

There are a lot of reasons to think that Michigan's offense will be better in 2013 and Dileo is one of them. In the eight-game sample detailed in the aforementioned article, Dileo racked up a 12.2 overall YPA and an 11.9 YPA on passes that were thrown to him when he started the play lined up as a slot receiver. That latter trait should come in very handy as the Maize and Blue make the full transition to Al Borges' pro-style passing offense.

Joyner names Dileo a potential breakout guy if he gets more opportunities, and I'm with him. More on this in the season preview, but Dileo was very, very good a year ago and I would like him to get five opportunities a game instead of 2.5.

"Michigan's been recruiting me since the eighth grade, Michigan State's been recruiting me since the ninth grade," Booker said. "They've been around for a while and I have great relationships with both coaching staffs. I've been to both campuses multiple times on unofficial visits, but I haven't visited (either) of them with both my parents at the same time and I want to do that."

Meanwhile, Kentucky:

"With Kentucky and coach Calipari, you can do everything in basketball you want to do," Booker said. "He puts players in the (NBA) and wins national championships, and builds dynasties. That's what you want to be a part of it, winning national championships and living out your dreams. That's what coach Calipari's been doing the last few years."

"I did lie. I came back. I told the truth and they suspended me indefinitely," Bryant said. "The way the guy was talking to me was like I did something wrong. I didn’t know it was OK for me to go to someone’s house."

Bryant said he lied because he was scared.

"Right, so I got scared and I lied," Bryant said. "I feel like if anybody else was in my position they probably would have done the same."

He's all like yeah he should be able to sign things:

"Yes. He should be able to," Bryant said. "He should be able to sign as many autographs and make as much money as he wants, because it’s his name. I feel like he’s the one who created it. He should be able to do whatever he feels as long as it’s legal and I don’t think there’s anything illegal about signing a picture of yourself and making money off himself. Shoot, the NCAA is making money off of it when they’re selling those No. 2 shirts. Why can’t he make a little bit of money off of it?"

"But how can you not like Devin Gardner? He's 6-4, he's 215 pounds. He fits perfectly into what Al Borges wants to do. I think Al Borges, to his credit, did the best that he could in a very, very difficult set of circumstances with (former Michigan quarterback) Denard Robinson. Denard will be always hailed and remembered by Michigan fans as being a hero, and yet when you're Al Borges and you're trying to run more of a West Coast, pro-style offense, it's hard to try to make that spread, running-style quarterback work in your system. But they made good strides and did the best they could."

Herbstreit doesn't like back-to-back games for Michigan and Ohio State, which means he is not having a stroke.

The autograph thing is tricky. What's to keep wealthy boosters from paying players a thousand bucks per autograph? If that happens, then wouldn't many recruits gravitate toward the schools whose fan bases "value" (wink) player autographs the most?

Letting players sell their autographs gives a green light for boosters to pay players and recruits whatever they want. In the same way, allowing them to sign endorsement contracts opens the way for Nike to offer a contract to every recruit Oregon wants that no one else can match. Scholarship limits would be pretty much out the window too, as players could simply be paid to walk on if a team was low on scholarships. Those developments might well be good for the players, but I have a hard time seeing how they wouldn't be bad for the game. Hopefully they can work out a way to get players at the major D1 level extra money without turning recruiting into a complete free for all. A share of the EA money would be a good way to start.

If all schools and boosters who wish to pay players are required to register with a central enforcement agency along with the amount of money they wish to give in each fiscal year, and players' disposable income is monitored, then the economy of player payments can be regulated. Cars and stereos - expensive, desirable things - count as payments for the purposes of this exercise (looking in your direction, Jack Maxton Chevrolet). Players and boosters both have to report the gifts/payments or action can be taken. Documentation of the source of expensive things could be required as well.

A booster can only do so much to motivate a player to want to attend university X which happens to have a terrible coaching staff, or is the wrong type of offense/defense for the style of play at which the recruit is most proficient. Some recruits may not want an NFL career and instead will go to programs which offer the most money for five years, then get a job in another field.

Without Drew Dileo, we lose to State. Full stop. And he made those catches all year. He has the surest hands and the best ability to get open in traffic of anyone on the team. He is exactly the sort of guy you want to target to keep the chains moving, a true "possession" slot receiver.

Would it be better if we had a more athletic version of him on the team? Sure. But we don't. Yeah, this blog likes guys who make the most of their possibly limited measurables with smart play and technical skill. And little fast guys that make big bruisers look silly. But everyone loves an underdog and we're nerds. Deal with it. Go hang out at the WWL if you want John Madden level analysis.

Then who should we target this year? Can you name one more proven option than Gallon? No, alright cool man. Yeah if we had David Terrell, Braylon Edwards, and Jason Avant ready to roll out I wouldn't want Dileo getting major targets either! But look who we do have.

The Dileo thing seems simple to me: Defenses are going to focus on some approximate order of the following:

- Gallon because he has shown he's a tough little shit than can hurt you.

- Funchess because he has already shown he is a big threat.

- The Fitz/Green role out of the backfield that could hurt you in the passing game if neglected.

- The "prototype" Darboh/Chesson position because they are simply going to look like you can't leave them alone. Can't wait until we have more of these.

After the opposition's defense has to worry about all of that, you've got Dileo. In basketball logic, he is going to draw the other team's worst defender. He is going to catch everything thrown to him, and make few mistakes.

I predict 3-4 games where Dileo will make a big, big difference for exactly the reasons posed above. He will kill some of the baby seal teams by the same logic. To me, he becomes a matchup nightmare when you have to line up your priorities to stopping Michigan.

I agree with TwoFiveAD on this one. And let's not throw it to Darboh either, only Desmond and Manningham. And why are we starting Fitz? Just let Wheatley take the bulk of the carries. And honestly, Brandon Graham would be a much better option at SDE than Heitzman, IMO.

I don't like back to back for Ohio and Michigan in most years, but I'm rooting for it big time this year. I hope this year is a once in a lifetime occurance of Michigans beating OSU twice in the same year, at least until an expanded playoff inevitably arrrives.

Also, last year the BIG championship game attendance was pathetic. If a conference can't sell out a championship game, it should be forfeit. UM v Ohio will undoubtedly sell out, but if we can't sell out any other championship game, that is sad. (It may have been a sellout, but there were many, many empty seats in the stands... too lazy to look it up)

He was really one of the biggest recruits Michigan signed in the last 30 years. He'd have been a top 10 player in the rankings if they had them back then. Even then, there was a lot of press attention surrounding his big decision of going to play for the Red Sox or Michigan football. He'd have probably broken AC's receiving record if he had Harbaugh throwing to him most of his career.